Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Dysmorphia

I've struggled most of my life with my body. By that, I don't mean weight issues, twice yes, but i mean I've hated my body. I always thought it was normal. You see girls talking about how they hate their bodies in movies and tv, and so you look at yourself and think, well crap! If that perfect girl thinks she's fat, I've got biiiig trouble!!!! And then my friends also complained about stuff, so it seemed the normal thing to do. I grew up thinking I had a really bad, thick, chubby, squishy body. Even when I was doing 2 to 4 hours of exercise a day, yes, that much! So what was wrong with me? What's still wrong with me?! Yesterday I was doing cardio, I don't usually do that kind of work out, I'm more a yoga girl, but because I need it to control my anxiety and depression. And ten minutes into the class, I looked down, saw my belly, and had a full on anxiety crisis. I ended in fetal position on my mat, trying to control my hyperventilation and trying to stop the tears. At that moment not only was I thinking "what I'm a doing? Nothing I do helps me look good! Why even try?" But I went full on " what the fuck I'm a doing?!"after I managed to calm down, I did a relaxing yoga sequence and managed to calm down. So what happened? Was my belly so awful? Was the work out too much? Well it did take me a while, but I finally admitted my dysmorphia. It's not extreme (at least I hope so), but enough to not see what people say they see, and definitely enough to make me hate my body at times. But why? Plain old tv? Well...i grew up being told I had a belly. More so, I was made fun for wearing spandex shorts at age 7. By my dad. And was constantly terrorized by him, even today, 24 years later, I use a ball to compare my belly at times; it looks like a swallowed a ball. I had anorexia for a year, never told anyone (while it was going on, told plenty after), and I hate tight clothes, I just started using yoga pants almost a year after I started yoga. I used to wear pants, and when I used the only yoga pant I had, I felt fat, stuffed in there, and I never left my house like that. So today, as a part of trying to get better, hoping to help someone who's going through something similar, but mostly because I don't want to have a crisis every time I see my belly or a body roll, I'm accepting I don't see my body as it is, but as a distortion of what it actually is. I want to change. I want to feel good.